Profile: William M. Farmer

Name: William M. Farmer

Office you are Seeking: 63rd House District

Current Profession: Arbitration Advocate; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Michigan Council 25, AFL-CIO

Age: 63

Where Do you Live: Scotts, Mi.

Marital Status and Children: Married/No children
 
Questionnaire:

Why did you choose to run for this office?

INTERITY
 
To bring integrity back to this Office, which serves the people in Calhoun and Kalamazoo Counties
 
What is the most pressing problem facing the State of Michigan?

EDUCATION
Tax cuts do not create jobs; education creates jobs. There is nothing more important than Education in building economic development for securing our lives today and building opportunities in the future. I will work to refund education and rescind the recent budget cuts to education.   When this is accomplished we will be in a better position to properly fund early childhood programs and K-12; make more affordable; Trade School, College and Universitity and modernize school building infrastructure. Investments in Education creates jobs. This combined with reducing class room sizes, will allow our experienced, certified Teaching Professionals and Para-Professionals, to do the job they we meant to do.
 
Under the current administration in Michigan there have been both more revenues (taxes), and cuts in the budget.  Do you prefer a more balanced combination of the two to continue balancing the budget or would you prefer more taxes or more cuts?
 
As I indicated above, tax cuts do not create jobs, education does. We can find revenues to fund edcation by eliminating the recent cuts to Education. We have a consumer based economy. This requires us to get money into the pockets of those who work for a living and their families. We need to remember the working poor spend a higher share of income in taxes than do higher income families. This is why we need to reestablish the Earned Income Tax Credit. By doing so we would provide approximately $2 million back into the local economy of the 63rd House District in Calhoun and Eastern Kalamazoo Counties alone. This helps families to have a little more security today and opportunity in the future.  This is not a time for austerity plans, it's a time to invest in our future and create jobs.
 
What do you bring to this race, and potentially to the office you seek, that would make a difference for the people of Michigan?
 
Bringing integrity back to this office is of primary importance to me. You judge a person not by what they say, but by their actions.

Since 1972 I have worked to protect and enhance the rights and economic well being of those who work for a living and their families. In this experience, cooperation with others provides the strength, perserverance and trust to create the conditions for people to allow you to represent them. I have found this to be a commitment never to be taken lightly or for granted.
 
Given the political polarization in Lansing and Washington, D.C., is there something you would do to try and change that culture or do you believe that highly partisan politics is simply "the way it is" in today's legislative environment.
 
COOPERATION. COOPERATION guided bylistening and intelligent focus, leads to the resolution to a universe of issues. Allow me an example. On 9/11, 2011 my wife and I went on a casual bicycle ride through our wonderful rual neighborhood around Scotts, Michigan. My wife fell over and immediately suffered, what we later found to be, a crushed tip of the elbow bone. A neighbor heard the commotion and hurried to us with an ice bag and had already called the first responders and an ambulance. The first responders were there in ten minutes, 6 to 8 folks. Volunteers from our rural area. These wonderful volunteers immediately went to work attending to my wife; my life. I felt helpless but yet relieved. Soon the ambulance was there and off we went.
You know something, when the volunteer heroes arrived, they did not ask if we; were married; our income; did we have health insurance; are we religious or belonged to a church and which one, what our sexual preferances were, what was our ethnicity. No, they cooperated with each other, focused on using each one of their special skills, in an intelligent manner to resolve the issues at hand.
This needs to be our approach at solving our problems. To much waste otherwise happens. Waste, which can be better spent solving problems as opposed to dividing us. I will work to assure security in our lives today and more opportunity in the future, with a view to the common good. In doing so, I will exercise responsible compassion in serving the public interest.